


Cosmic Love

by wirewrappedlily



Series: Bones Saves the Universe [4]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Jim went missing, M/M, Mpreg, With A Twist, seven years later Bones drags his ass back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-24
Updated: 2013-11-24
Packaged: 2018-01-02 12:17:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1056677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wirewrappedlily/pseuds/wirewrappedlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I think I've proven I'll hunt you down, sweetheart: you won't miss anything ever again."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cosmic Love

_The whole world was gone._

_Everything was gone._

_There was no hope left; no safe haven of determined blue eyes and a set mouth._

_Ambassador Spock was still talking to him, but he'd already said the words that ended Leonard McCoy's life._

_He'd told him, "I am sorry, Leonard, my friend...but Jim will not return from this. Not alive."_

_How could he still be talking?_

_"He has not and will not suffer. It is of great importance to know this. The Nexus creates for each of us a paradise..."_

_Leonard looked at the ruined lines of the elder Spock's face, his brows drawn together. "He's not dead..." Leonard choked._

_"No, but the actions he will take to ensure that a future threat that would use the Nexus claims his life--"_

_"He's not dead, and you're wasting my time telling me that he'll damn well be peaceful waiting for me to spring him out of there?!"_

_"Len, the Nexus was thrown out of its schedule well enough with the Red Matter; it's slowin' down again, and if we don' enter it now to pull 'im out, we may ne'er get the chance!"_

_"Are you really willing to risk this, Scotty?"_

_"Always, sir."_

_"Th-There's a hail incomin', Len!"_

_"Uhura, you're not talking us out of it--"_

_"I wouldn't dream of it, Len. We're coming with you. The shuttle's small and powerful. Spock and I suped it up once Hikaru and Pavel got to us. We're all here...and we're all going with you, one way or another."_

"I knew I'd regret agreeing to this." Leonard groaned, trying to move his arms first, keeping his eyes determinedly closed. 

"You're the one that came up with the blasted plan, Len." 

"You say that like it's my fault." McCoy commented, voice high as he lifted one arm shakily, putting a long hand over his eyes. 

"Not to go pointin' fingers, Cap'n, but it is." 

"I thought we'd agreed I wasn't the Captain of the two of us." 

"On the hunk of junk you two've been flying for the last seven years, either of you being called captain is an insult to the title." Uhura bit off from a few meters away. 

"The hunk of junk blew up, didn' it?" Scotty sighed. 

"Can you blame it?" 

"Not really, no." Scotty groaned, letting himself get hoisted up by Uhura as Leonard debated whether having gotten this far was far enough. "Where are we?" 

"In the Nexus. Which, according to the elder Ambassador Spock, creates a paradise for anyone who enters it." 

"So ye all are a figment of my imagination?" 

"We're not in Engineering deck of the Enterprise: this isn't your paradise, Scott." Hikaru reassured him, climbing over the wreckage to get to McCoy, who really didn't want to move yet. 

Seven years without Jim Kirk had taken its toll on Leonard McCoy: grey dashed over his temples, through the beard he'd let grow in somewhere along the way--he'd stopped caring around the first year mark, what he looked like. He'd kept his hair short out of the sheer force of discomfort having it any longer caused him; his nails were grimy and lined with oil from working with Scott on their hunk of junk; he had such deep lines around his eyes now that he wondered if Jim would want to look at him ever again. It'd be worth the rejection and the hell he'd gone through for the last seven years just to see him one more time, though. 

His thoughts turned, as they usually did, to the day he'd told Joanna about Jim's disappearance: his little girl bursting into tears, screaming at him that it had to be his fault, that he wouldn't let anyone love him; did he really expect her to believe that Jim just disappeared? She'd demanded to talk to him; she wanted to demand to know how to 'fix' her father so that Jim and he could be together again. It'd gone on for three hours before Scotty showed up, calling Uhura in the first ten seconds of seeing the rage, to get Nyota to calm his little girl down, to help her understand that Jim really had disappeared. He'd barely been able to choke the words out that he was going to find Jim and bring him home, it had hurt so much; but he'd managed. Getting here had been the first step in his mind; this meant they'd heal.

"The elder Spock knows only what was reported by Captain Jean-Luc Picard upon the completion of the mission that claimed Captain Kirk's life, but I would venture an assumption that we are in Georgia, as that is Doctor McCoy's house, and I can hear...what I believe to be giggling." Spock reported distastefully, and Leonard finally opened his eyes to the bright Georgia sky, letting Hikaru pick him up out of the wreckage of his and Scotty's ship. 

The shuttle that Captain Hikaru Sulu and Commander Pavel Chekov had all-but stolen from the 'Fleet was sitting pretty just a few meters away; Uhura and Spock lingering close to each other, Uhura's hand on the damned hobgoblin's swollen stomach. "HE'S PREGNANT AND YOU LET HIM THROUGH THE ENERGY FIELD?!" 

"Doctor, I am in no discomfort...no more than usual associated with this pregnancy. However, I will submit to an examination once we have located the Captain." 

McCoy looked at Uhura, who shrugged, "Once we'd conceived, Spock volunteered to carry the baby to term, to allow me to keep working with the Romulans on a peace treaty." 

"How admirable." McCoy grumbled, "You do realize that male-pregnancies have a higher rate of complication and those pregnant should be _on bed rest_ from the second trimester until delivery?" 

"A human male's body is far weaker than a Vulcan male's, doctor. While it is very true that, as Nyota so impressively impersonated you saying upon the completion of the procedure 'No damn fooling with a man's internal organs gives him the right to do something only women are strong enough to handle', I remain confident that for as ill-equipped as a male body is for child bearing, as a Vulcan-human hybrid carrying a three-quarters human baby I am well-equipped with the correct doctor and the right partner. Both of which I now have." 

"He's gotten sentimental in pregnancy." McCoy growled at Uhura. 

"Tell me about it. We're here because he refused to give birth without Jim to be godfather and you to be doctor." 

"How far over due date is he?" 

"Chapel told me we couldn't hide that from you." Uhura grinned, "Five days." 

"You're both out of your Vulcan minds." 

Uhura cocked an eyebrow at him, but McCoy didn't say a thing about calling her a Vulcan, pursing his lips together as he turned for the house, his heart heavier by the minute. 

Scotty caught up to him easily enough, clapping one hand on his back more to keep him upright as they trudged towards the sounds of, indeed, giggling. Scotty had been there for him from the time Jim had disappeared into the Nexus: he'd decided to buy a clunker of a space ship, fix it up with the sweat from their brows, and be willingly dragged out into the middle of nowhere in space with Leonard on the hopes of getting their idiot back. They'd gotten through two Klingon attacks, a near-miss with something that called itself V'Ger, and an Orion slavers ship that Gaila was ever so thankful they took down. And now here he was walking up to the house he and Jim had gotten married in, hoping to find the love of his life. 

He came face to face with a younger, happier version of himself--just before Jim Kirk triggered a trap that had his younger self flying upside down two storeys, hanging by his ankle attached to a pulley system in the steeple of the roof. 

"B-Bones?!" Jim yelled, eyes wide as he took in the old, ragged-looking doctor. Jim looked just the same--a grim set to his mouth and a childlike hope in his eyes, "Bones?" 

"What the hell?" Leonard demanded, signalling up to the copy of him that winked out of existence at a second glance. 

Jim was shaky in getting up, but surprisingly untroubled in launching himself for Leonard's neck, hugging hard. "He wasn't you, I knew he wasn't...god, you're here..." Jim's hands tugged through his hair, arms tight enough to break ribs if he wasn't careful, and Bones had never felt relief quite like this, even when Jim had died and come back. 

"I'm here, darlin'. I'm finally here." Leonard captured Jim's mouth as he nipped kisses into whatever skin he could reach, kissing him long and deep. 

"How long...?" Jim murmured when they finally broke apart, fingers scratching through Leonard's salt-and-pepper temples. 

"Seven years, three months, and twelve days...only today doesn't count." Leonard decided that was enough oxygen intake, he needed to be kissing Jim again, like, right that second. 

"Bones, I am so damn sorry." 

"You didn't do this, Jim. It's okay." 

"It felt like I was just taken, Bones." 

"So you devised a trap for the other McCoy in--" 

"Eight minutes, give or take." Jim answered, turning to Uhura and pulling her in for a hug; Scotty not even waiting for one to be offered; and Sulu and Chekov both rushing in in unison, causing them to bash into each other and both stop. "Would've taken me less time, but I...uh..." Jim turned huge blue eyes on Leonard, the look unsettling. "David!" He called, turning towards the back of the house, and from between gently billowing sheets ran a little devil with eyes just as blue as Jim's and skin just as tanned as Leonard's. "Bones, this is David...he's our son here." David slowed his steps, looking up with wondering eyes. 

"So...he's the real one?" David asked. 

"He's my Leonard Horatio McCoy." Jim confirmed. 

"Looks older than I thought he would." 

"It's clear which father you take after." Jim scolded with a laugh, shaking his head. 

"Oh?" Uhura raised her brows. 

"I don't mean to be a jerk, but that also doesn't mean I'm not aware of being one sometimes." Jim growled, eyes narrowed. 

Uhura actually looked impressed by this admission, and Jim shook his head, slinging David up onto his hip. "So, you're gonna be my dad, huh? ...You okay?" 

Leonard was frozen; his eyes gone wide and his face gone pale. "David..." 

"Go show Pavel and Scotty what you showed me." Jim told David, putting him on his feet again. David happily led the two older men off, and Jim looked into Leonard's eyes, "Bones?" 

"You...he's named David?" 

"David George Kirk-McCoy." Jim told him steadily. "We were gonna have kids when the mission ended, Bones." 

"I remember." Leonard choked out. "The Nexus...gives us what we want most." 

"Couldn't give me you, Bones. Not convincingly enough to fool me, anyway. I would've busted my way back out if you hadn't busted your way in. It kind of frightens me how long it might've taken..." 

"It started slowin' down--its natural path takes it through the galaxy every 39.1 years, but the Red Matter and the displacements that caused had a ripple effect. I couldn't let the water settle back out before jumpin' in after you." 

Jim kissed him again, slow, and Leonard had to wonder why he was so desperate, if it'd only been a few minutes for Jim; but Jim started scrubbing his fingers over Leonard's temples, studying Leonard's face like it was new to him, and Leonard figured that maybe those few minutes might've killed him if Jim had come to him looking like Leonard looked. 

"It's okay, darlin', you didn't miss a damn thing." Leonard murmured, smiling at him, and Jim's eyes got impossibly brighter, his mouth pulling into a smile in return. 

Jim ran his fingers over Leonard's beard, swallowing as he pulled himself in close enough so that they were hugging without a pocket of air between them. Leonard shuddered as Jim pushed his face into that one spot that Jim had always favoured so much, the brush of his blond eyelashes over Leonard's neck making him feel insane and giddy with relief. "How do we get back out?" Jim asked from in Leonard's throat, and Leonard laughed into his hair, tugging his fingers through the short hairs at the back of Jim's neck. 

"We don' actually have a plan, as such..." Scotty began. 

Jim drew out of Leonard's neck, looking from him to Spock incredulously, "Some rescue operation this is!" He swatted McCoy on the arm, pouting. "What happens when we hit the eight-minute mark, Bones, and you've missed seven years of Joanna's life?" 

"Jim--" 

"You've already missed seven years of her life, haven't you?" Jim looked stricken; so insanely disappointed that it made something in McCoy's chest seize. 

"We've kept in touch--" 

"At least tell me you've seen her!" 

"Of course I have, Jim, but she's really busy right now. She's headed for Starfleet...she wants to be a captain." 

Jim's expression moved from shock to wonder to elation in the course of two seconds, and Leonard chuckled, trying to put absolutely everything to memory. "I should be there...we should be there, Bones. Not here for another seven years!" 

Jim's eyes had shifted full circle to determined, gripping Leonard's shoulders between his hands. 

"Spock, I want you to tell me everything we know; Hikaru, take Scotty and make sure the shuttle's flight-worthy, I don't know how we're getting out of here, but I figure we'll need it; Pavel, look for anything in the wreckage that we could use, or that should be kept; Ny, scan through every frequency you can get, I wanna know if there's any way to get a signal out." 

"We've tried bombarding--" 

"I didn't have the equipment to pick anything up, Scotty; might work the other way around anyway. We try, we fail; we try, we fail--" 

"But the only true failure is when we stop trying." Uhura finished with a grin. "Damn good to have you back, Captain." 

Jim grinned back, nodding to her. "Spock, let's get you inside and sitting, huh? You look like you're about ready to pop." 

"The foetus has not yet shown signs of being ready to 'pop'. As such, I thought it adequate to find our chosen godfather, and have the child delivered by the CMO of the Enterprise, the steadiest hands in any galaxy." 

"...Is getting sentimental a common--" 

"Yes." McCoy and Uhura answered at the same time, in the same tone. Jim glanced from one to the other, snorting into laughter. 

"Bones, if you'd be so kind as to make sure Spock doesn't pop, I'd be grateful." Jim clapped him on the shoulder, the same way he'd done countless times before, and Leonard couldn't surpress the...the _glow_ of happiness just having Jim back gave him. 

"What do you want me to do, Pops?" David asked, voice carrying over the murmured agreements that having Jim back was damn good for all of them. 

"Come with me, leetle one. I need help carrying ze debris." Pavel ordered, offering his hand. David took it without a qualm, just like Jim Kirk would have, and Leonard's heart went to his throat at that thought. He looked back to Jim, and his face must've said every damn thing he was thinking. Jim looped an arm around him, walking them inside and having Spock sit. 

"We can't take him with us." Leonard muttered. 

"He's not real, Bones; none of it is. We're getting out of here, because I want real. I want real, with you, out there." 

Leonard sighed, shaking his head as he opened the long, heavy black coat he'd taken to wearing on the flying hunk of junk, reaching into an inner pocket and drawing out a medkit that was just bigger than his hand, flipping it open and taking out a tricorder in sharp movements. 

"I got good news and I got bad news, Spock. Bad news is: you're heavily pregnant. Good news is, there's nothing wrong, no complications; you're golden." 

"Excuse me, doctor, but how is my pregnancy bad news?" 

"I remember Jocelyn when she was pregnant with Jo, Spock: it's bad. That's the price. Sex is good, and baby's good, but actually being pregnant? Not good one bit. What really niggled 'er was that people kept touching her stomach without askin'." 

"I...have not been out much since the procedure took." Spock admitted haltingly. "Nyota and I...came to this agreement because she had work far too important to be postponed. I, however, was given leave with nothing..." Spock cut himself off. 

"You felt like you had nothin' better to do, so why not chain yourself to a house while carryin' a baby. Dammit, man, just because I wasn't your doctor anymore, doesn't mean you couldn't still talk to me! You don't think I didn't feel more adrift than the damn hunk of junk I've been flyin' in?" 

Spock looked startled, staring up at him, and Jim looked like he was ready to cry. He reached for Bones's hand, taking it in both of his. He looked down at the long fingers he'd captured, and his gaze shot back up to Leonard, his eyes wide, "You actually...?" 

Leonard looked at him, then looked down at his hand. He tugged the long, silver chain out of his shirt, the one his wedding band had resided on for years. "Had to. Scotty had me monkeying with machinery, and there was no way I was goin' back on this one." 

Jim brushed his thumb over Leonard's tattooed skin; Jim's name wrapped around his ring finger in place of the band he'd put there years before. Jim cleared his throat, shaking his head at himself as he let go of Leonard's hands and slid his own ring off, showing his own marking. "You were at that conference on Risa..." 

Leonard laughed, rolling his eyes. "You neither work on people's damn insides, nor--" 

"Hey, I monkeyed my fair share, you cannot claim otherwise." 

There was a light in Bones that had been long-dead, giving him a glow just under the surface that wasn't noticeable until now; now, with it fifty times more powerful than it had ever been before. 

"What'dya figured the chances are I get called in to finish my tour, Bones?" 

"Nil if Starfleet knows what's good for 'em. You belong to Jo and me and the rest of your damn family that had to traipse in here to come rescue you." 

Jim grinned, nodding, and that was about all the peace it looked like they were going to get as something impacted, tossing Jim and Bones into the coffee table beside them; the glass and wood giving under their weight in a crash. "Captain!" 

"Spock, get in a doorway!" Jim shouted, grunting as he picked himself up out of the shattered glass and brought Leonard up with him, half-carrying Leonard to the door way into the living room. "Stay here, I gotta go to the others. Bones, he's your priority right now." 

"Go!" Leonard bellowed as another impact shook the ground out from under him, he and Spock slumping down the side of the doorway as Jim barrelled out of the door, yelling. 

"Uhura, you hearing anything?" Jim bellowed, running for Pavel and steadying him as another impact hit; a catch that would have seen Pavel fallen into a sharp, twisted piece of metal if it hadn't been successful. 

"I'm trying to hail whoever's firing on the Nexus, Captain!" Uhura bellowed right back, turning her head as Sulu joined her, shouting through his rank, name, and identification code. 

Jim didn't stop to think about the changes that would've been made in seven years, popping the lid on the communications panel and getting elbow-deep in the wiring, hissing as something sparked at him, biting. Static crackled and five horrible-sounding pops came over the line before they could actually hear the chaotic tumult of the Bridge of a starship. 

"This is Captain Hikaru Sulu--" 

"Uncle Hi?! How the hell..." Joanna's voice sounded over the comm line, and the impacts that had picked up a rhythm stopped. Hikaru looked up at Jim, smirking as he signalled Jim to take over. 

"Not just Hi, peach. Miss me?" Jim laughed, and Joanna bit off a swear in High Romulan that Jim just knew had to come from Uhura. "Jo, we're in the energy rift. The Nexus, it's called...What are you doing and how are you here?" 

"Captain Joanna Kirk-McCoy of the USS Enterprise, Pops. The displacement popped back up, and we were in the neighbourhood. It's what ate both my daddies, I wasn't about to pass up a chance to get it to spit them back out." 

"We're workin' on a way out from this side, pet, but temporal displacement's a bitch." He winced as he remembered he was talking to Leonard's little girl. 

"What d'you need?" 

"Can your sensors pick up where this signal is coming from?" 

"No." Joanna reported after getting the report. 

"Alright, well, let's see if I can fix that..." Jim grunted, diving back into the innards of the shuttle. "I need a--" Scotty thrust the tool into his face before he could even finish the sentence. "Thank you." 

"It looks like firing on the rift has stabilized the temporal displacement." 

"We start getting out of the temporal sphere, Jo, and try it again, but we've got a heavily pregnant Vulcan and we need to be damn careful." 

"We've got...it's jumping and faint, but there's a signal." 

"I'll level it out for you, peach. We're going to make a run to punch our way out, but I want a back-up: tractor beam or transporters, I don't care, whatever'll work, if anything." 

"You got it." 

"Sweets, how long's it been since your dad disappeared?" 

"Going on ten years." 

Jim looked violently angry, but he kept his hands steady as he tweaked the innards of a shuttle that he really shouldn't have been able to sort out as easily as he did if Starfleet was really changing the schematics for security reasons as often as they claimed to be. 

"How long's it been for you?" 

"It's barely been half an hour, baby, and that's just for me. For the others, it's been less." 

"Good lord..." Joanna drawled, "Jim...tell my dad...you'll be here soon, but tell my dad...that I love him, and I am _sorry_." 

"Peach?" 

"Just..." 

"I will, baby girl, but you'll get to tell him soon, too. And we love you, too. You got us?" 

"I got you." She was grinning, her voice just as excited as it had been years ago playing princess. 

"I've gotta go collect your dad and my first officer, and we will be comin' right out to you." 

"Jim..." 

"Yeah, sweetheart. I'll keep him safe." 

"You better." 

Jim nodded to Hikaru and Uhura, turning and bolting for the house again, yelling as he went, "Pavel! Scotty! In the shuttle! We're goin' home, boys!"

Jim took one leap over the porch, falling through the front door in his haste and nearly falling over anyway. Spock was on the ground, Leonard bent over his belly with a knife and a string of curses falling from his mouth. "Jim! He's gone into labour, I've gotta complete the C-section before Spock's body tries to push it out another damn way. This is why I don't like male pregnancy." 

"Bones, it was Joanna firing on us, it's been ten years out there. Firing stabilized the temporal flux, but if she loses us, she'll fire again to get us back." 

Leonard looked up sharply at Jim, green blood staining his hands as he took that in, "We can't move him, and if she fires, Spock could die under my hands, Jim. Go out there and tell her to stop. We will get out of here, but I've gotta deliver this baby." 

Jim sprinted back out, yelling for Nyota as his legs ate up ground. In a rush, he told the shuttle full of his family what was happening, collapsing into the abandoned comm chair as Nyota took off for her husband and baby. "Jo? Baby, you still with me?" 

"What's wrong?" 

"Spock's gone into labour, sweetheart. Your dad's performing the C-section right now...if you lose us, honey, you can't fire. You gotta let us go, alright?" 

"Pops..." 

"We will come back to you, Joanna. You have my word." 

"With a bouncy baby cousin, right?" 

"Yes, ma'am." 

Jim went back to the house, taking in the absence of David; the colour fading from the sky. "The Nexus is collapsing around us, isn't it?" Bones yelled when Jim got close enough. 

"How'd you guess?" 

"Seems like the kind of thing that would happen!" Bones yelled back, "Pavel, how's his pulse?" 

"Steady, sir!" 

"Nyota, it's a boy." Leonard told her, voice enraptured as he carefully brought the child into view, handing him to Nyota while he cut the cord himself, working as quickly as he could to get Spock stitched back together. "Congratulations." 

"Pavel! Was there a stretcher in the wreck?" 

"I-I did not see one." 

Jim and Scotty looked at each, both taking off for the door: Spock could be moved with a stretcher, they wouldn't lose more time if they could just get him onto the damn shuttle. 

"The wreckage is still there, but everything else is starting to disappear!" Scotty shouted, sprinting one way while Jim sprinted another, circling the wreckage. "Can we step in the absent spaces?!" 

"Don't try!" Jim yelled, stumbling over his feet into crashing to his knees on one of the absent spaces. "...Never mind!" 

"Tha' settles tha', then!" 

Jim heaved something he hoped was the stretcher out from under the wreckage, shaking it free. "Got it!" 

Scotty tripped over debris, running for him. He took the other side of the stretcher, helping him to excavate it. 

They got it out, Jim kicking the the twisted leg until it snapped back into place with a shriek of protesting metal. They ran full-bore to the house again, getting the stretcher through the door by some miracle of Bones's house being made to suit it; Leonard finishing up, kneeling up as they wheeled it in. "Good idea." 

"Is he...?" 

"He's fine, he'll be fine--he just shouldn't be walkin' around. Help me lift 'im." 

Bones and Scotty wheeled Spock out of the house, Uhura drawing near to Jim with her newborn in her arms, "Jim, meet S'Jenes Horatio Uhura." 

"Good name." Jim murmured warmly, reaching out gently to rub a hand over the scarf-swaddled baby. "Good baby." 

Jim and Hikaru climbed into the pilot seats, Scotty sitting at the comm console to call up Joanna once more. "Start praying." Scotty mumbled as the shuttle came to life under Jim's hands. 

"Here goes everything." Jim muttered, Sulu sitting back as Jim took over controls, punching it hard. 

~

Jim leaned against the door of his bedroom, watching as Leonard crawled into bed with the groan of the overworked. 

Leonard had gotten bulkier; corded with muscle over his arms and shoulders from years of working his ass off to keep the hunk of junk he'd bought afloat in search of Jim. There was silver in his chest hair, and the lines around his mouth had deepened so badly that Jim couldn't kiss them away anymore. Leonard's hands had acquired scars and callouses; most of him had acquired scars, actually, and Jim fully intended on taking his time mapping each one of them out. 

"I'm old now." Leonard murmured, looking at his hands as he finally dragged himself up the bed, mashing pillows together to prop himself up on. 

"According to you, you've been old since I've known you." Jim replied, shuffling into the room and stripping down. "What did I do that you're still here, Bones?" Jim asked quietly, kneeling over Leonard's legs. "How'd I manage to get so damn lucky?" 

"I'm the lucky one, darlin'. You're just the way you were, gorgeous and young as ever, and you look at me like I'm some great prize." 

Jim's brow furrowed, and he flicked Leonard's thigh, hard. "You get better with age and it's unfair." Jim muttered, sliding his hands over Leonard's hips. He lowered himself down slowly, teasing until Bones could get him into a kiss, his hands running over the body beneath him eagerly: familiar but new. Leonard's body responded to him just the same, but the sensation was different under his hands; scars threaded where they ought not to be, and definition thick where it was understated before. "You did this on purpose..." Jim muttered against Leonard's freckled, tanned shoulder, "all these muscles...it's for intimidation." 

"I was flyin' pretty aimlessly most of the time, Jim. We had five years of aimless flyin' and how many battles did we get into in that time?" 

"That was at least eighty percent making first contact and away parties." Jim argued blandly, stroking his thumb over Leonard's left nipple while his hand curved over what looked like a tear over the definition of Leonard's ribs. 

"I never wanted the adventure without you, Jim." 

"I was there, Bones. I was there, because you were determined to find me, and you're the most important part of me." 

"Did Spock's pregnancy sentimentality rub off on you, sweetheart?" 

"I missed out, Bones. I missed out getting to laugh over being your first grey hair. I didn't get to see Jo grow up. I didn't get to see Hikaru become Captain, and I wasn't there when he and Pavel fell apart--" 

"No, but you're here for them getting back together, Jim. And you're here for S'Jenes--" 

"Bones, when we were hightailing it out of there...Jo told me to tell you she was sorry. What was she sorry for?" 

A muscle in Leonard's jaw twitched, his eyes rolling to the ceiling, "She didn't take it well, Jim. Thought I was lyin' to her about you disappearing. It all came out. Everything she's been burying since Jocelyn and I were through. It...hurt. And it made her hate me for a long time. Long enough that we...That I didn't get to be there, because she didn't want me." 

Jim's face was a mask of pain and shock, his arms strong around Leonard's chest as he stared at his lover, open-mouthed and pale. 

"She wanted to talk to you, to ask you how to fix me so you'd want me again--" 

Leonard was cut off with a savage kiss, Jim sobbing into his mouth at the knowledge. 

"'S alright, darlin'." 

"Not, it's not." Jim choked, "Jo knows better! She was there when we got married, she--"

"Her daddy made her mama hate him, Jim--" 

"That's bullshit, Bones!"

"--and then he found someone else to love, for her to love, too, and they got married so that they could be a family...and when she saw her daddy after that, the family was gone again--" 

"Bones, no! No, I'm not listening to this. I get it, really, I do. Jo had it tough when she was tiny, but, Bones, don't paint it like Jocelyn didn't do what she did to you! That some of this isn't her fault! I was taken, Bones. The Nexus sucked me in while I was with the crew sent to observe it, and there was nothing anyone could've done. I wouldn't be here without you, Bones; I'd be long-dead. I would've been on Earth when the Narada struck, stranded planetside to watch as an evil man killed my home. Jocelyn lied to you, she cheated on you, and she blamed you for it...she blamed you for working too hard, for not taking notice when she started cheating--she's wrong, Bones! She is! And I won't hear you talk like she isn't!" 

"Jim, sweetheart, Jo's grown up with her mama. She knows whatever Jocelyn's told her over the years." 

"Doesn't mean I can't get pissed about it!" Jim insisted, cheeks and ears flushed; eyes wild. 

"I love you, too, darlin'." Leonard drawled, falling into a grin. He slid a leg around Jim's, gently pushing Jim onto his back on the bed and covering Jim's body with his own. "There anything else you wanna argue about while we're both alone, together, naked, and in bed?" 

"Do you still want a baby?" Jim asked after not even a full beat. 

"Yes. You and I would make the most gorgeous baby, Jim..." 

"But you don't want either of us carrying it." Jim pointed out. 

"That's not it: If either of us carry it, we're going to be so damn careful that no emergency C-sections with a extra-strength sedative and an analgesic will have to be performed on any living room floors. I'm talkin' the bed rest, the hospital, the nutrient supplements, the _taking it easy_." 

"That was my plan, too." 

"Now..." The question was in Leonard's eyes, and Jim's features pulled into a slow, devastating smile, his eyes heavy-lidded as he reached up and urged Bones down, kissing him long and luxuriously slow. 

Leonard balanced his weight on his elbows, using one hand to pillow Jim's head, the other pressing between his shoulder blades as he let his hips rut down once, drawing a harsh moan out of Jim. Closing his eyes, Jim bared his neck to Leonard, moaning lightly as Leonard sucked and licked and bit until his skin was burning with rushing blood, a bruise aching its way to the surface--one that Jim wouldn't be able to easily hide. Leonard had a thing for that; for leaving a mark claiming what was his--and Jim boggled at the paradox of a man so surly at the sight of any other bruise being so eager to leave one. 

Jim liked them, so he didn't let himself boggle for long before he opened himself up to be kicked back into the moment; Leonard's fingers long and sure and too good, slickly teasing at his hole. Jim bit his lip, pushing for his finger, and Leonard tsked, teasing his lip out from between his teeth and licking over the red swell; sucking on it before delving into a real kiss, Jim's body reacting to Leonard like it was whole only when it was with him. Leonard groaned into his mouth, smirking into the kiss as Jim relaxed for him. 

Bright blue eyes stared up at him as the kiss ended, Jim's keen gaze fading with each scissor and thrust of Leonard's fingers; lust hazing over until his eyes were smouldering, dull yet somehow even more powerful than a blaze. Jim swallowed, and Leonard licked his lips, laying his mouth over Jim's throat. Jim buried his fingers in Leonard's hair, tugging just like he liked and sending him moaning into Jim's skin. Jim groaned as Leonard started to ease his fingers back out, laying kisses over his jawline with a wicked little smile. 

"Turn over, darlin'," Leonard sighed, pitching his voice low to shiver through Jim like cold water after a long, hot day. 

Jim did as directed, the both of them laying on their sides, Leonard's front to Jim's back as he gently pushed in, wrapping strong arms around Jim's shaking body. "Bones...I love you. You feel so fucking good." Jim pushed back, his neck arching as he moaned, folding his arm over Bones, the other hand tunnelling back through Leonard's hair. Leonard's hand splayed over Jim's chest, pulling him in tighter; thrusting as deep as he could. 

"I love you, too, darlin'." Bones murmured, pressing sloppy kisses to his neck, the shell of his ear. Jim moaned breathlessly, shuddering back against him as Leonard slid his hand down, wrapping his hand around Jim's cock. He was taking this achingly slow, and Jim was shaking apart because of it. 

Bringing Leonard's hand to his lips, Jim began kissing his fingertips, then his knuckles, littering attention over the long, clever fingers that had saved more lives than Jim liked to think about. "Love these hands..." Jim moaned. Leonard chuckled, giving a slow pump of Jim's cock. Jim writhed against him, tightening around Leonard's cock. "Please, Bones..." 

Leonard chuckled huskily, pressing Jim back against him and shifting over, on top of him, getting an angle and thrusting hard and deep. Jim screamed in pleasure as Leonard buried into his prostate, pumping Jim's cock in time with his thrusts. 

"Yes, yes! Bones, fuck--" 

"I missed you so much, Jim. I can't..." 

"I won't leave you again, Bones. I couldn't. I can't miss anything else." 

"I think I've proven I'll hunt you down, sweetheart: you won't miss anything ever again."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm thinkin' this is the end of the series, my freaky darlings. 
> 
> Feel free to give me prompts in comments, or on my Tumblr: [wirewrappedlily](http://wirewrappedlily.tumblr.com/), and I'll see what I can do!


End file.
